Not What I Meant
by T'Reilani
Summary: Telepathy is not a blessing, disguised or otherwise. But it makes for some very interesting interactions. One-shot collection set in the Fragile-verse.
1. Chapter 1: That Came Out Wrong

**Telepathy is not a blessing, disguised or not.**

**This is the lighter side of Riella's daily life, inspired by a conversation me and one of my good friends had about what mind-reading would actually mean. It's a collection of one-shots that fit into the Fragile-verse, some humorous, some romantic, and some just plain awkward, but mostly focusing on Riella's telepathy and its effects on herself and those she interacts with. They won't necessarily be in chronological order, so I'll be sure to mention when they take place.**

**Enjoy, and don't forget to let me know what you think! If there's something you'd particularly like to see, feel free to tell me!**

_**That Came Out Wrong, Really**_

_**Starring:**_

_**Prowl**_

_**Riella**_

_**Takes place during Riella and Prowl's Cyber-Ninja training on Cybertron.**_

Prowl paced back and forth across the exercise room floor. "I don't _believe_ this. It's not _fair_!"

"Oh, stop griping."

The black and gold 'bot started and looked up to see Riella, perched like a cyber-cat in the rafters above him. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I didn't." Riella jumped down and landed in front of him. "You just weren't paying attention."

"You snuck up on me." Prowl crossed his arms on his broad chest.

"Ah, semantics." The fembot tossed her head and settled down on the floor, starting a few stretches. "What's with the whining? And don't say it's nothing, you're broadcasting across the whole dojo."

Prowl sighed heavily and began his own stretching. "Master Yoketron says I have to practice 'socializing'. Why don't you ever get that kind of assignment?"

Riella shrugged as best she could from a half-upside-down position. "Maybe because I can't, or I'll get caught? So what do you have to do?"

"That's the worst part. I have to spend some time with a fembot!" Prowl made it sound like he'd been sent to the Decepticons' headquarters alone.

Riella made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a stifled giggle. "You mean a date?"

"You call it a date. I call it a nightmare."

Riella made another strangled sound and covered her mouth with one blue hand. Prowl looked at her oddly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm…haha…fine." Riella choked back her laughter as best she could. "So who are you taking?"

Prowl almost fell, just managing to stabilize himself with one hand. "Slag! I don't know. I don't even know any fembots who'd do something like that with me!"

Riella couldn't hold back a burst of laughter. At his glare, she struggled to get control. "Sorry…haha…you just…oh, never mind."

The other ninja growled softly and looked away. When she managed to stop laughing, Riella started her final round of stretches, only to notice that Prowl was now staring at her.

"What?"

Prowl blinked. "You're a fembot."

Riella raised one optic ridge. "Brilliant deduction. You come to that conclusion all by yourself?" 

Prowl apparently missed the sarcastic tone in her voice, probably since he'd just found a loophole. "You could go with me! Would you? That would be really easy."

"Really easy?" Riella stood up, glaring and stalking toward him. "Oh, so you'd just take me to keep from having to do something awkward? Classy."

Prowl hastily backtracked. "Whoa, no, that's not really what I meant! That wasn't…uh…" He started backing away, looking around nervously.

"Let me guess. It came out wrong." Riella spun on one stiletto heel and stalked out of the room, hmmph'ing as she went. Just before reaching the door, though, she turned back.

"Yes. I'll go with you."


	2. Chapter 2: Did I Say That Out Loud?

**Telepathy is not a blessing, disguised or not.**

**This is the lighter side of Riella's daily life, inspired by a conversation me and one of my good friends had about what mind-reading would actually mean. It's a collection of one-shots that fit into the Fragile-verse, some humorous, some romantic, and some just plain awkward, but mostly focusing on Riella's telepathy and its effects on herself and those she interacts with. They won't necessarily be in chronological order, so I'll be sure to mention when they take place.**

**Enjoy, and don't forget to let me know what you think! If there's something you'd particularly like to see, feel free to tell me! **

_**Did I Say That Out Loud?**_

_**Starring:**_

_**Riella**_

_**Bulkhead**_

_**And a brief appearance by Jazz!**_

_**Takes place sometime after Riella's recovery – yes, of course she's recovering! A silly concept my friend and I came up with.**_

Bulkhead hummed softly as he touched up one of his various art pieces. His processor wasn't really focused on his work at all, though. No, the big Autobot had finally noticed something that, for some reason, had caught his attention very strongly that morning.

Riella.

Specifically, Riella was female.

Very female.

Why exactly it took him so long to think about it, Bulkhead wasn't sure. Maybe it had something to do with the way she acted. She really seemed like one of the guys. Or maybe it just came from spending a lot of time out in space with nobody except Optimus, Bumblebee, and Ratchet before she and Prowl had showed up. Either way, his CPU had finally processed the fact that Riella was a girl, and kind of pretty, too. By ninja standards, anyway. Small and slender, with elegant proportions and clear features…paint always perfectly clean and free of scrapes or dents…blue optics that looked like she knew something no one else did…a sleek, fast vehicle mode…

"_BULKHEAD!" _

Riella's shriek jolted him out of his reverie. "Huh? What?"

She was glaring at him, but even that was kind of cute…except she was obviously furious…

"Do you _mind_? _Some_ of us might not want to be considered…like _that_!"

"Uh…" Bulkhead tried to catch up with her thought process. "What'd I do?"

Riella's glare looked intense enough to melt steel, and for a moment she just stared, apparently lost for a response. Finally, she found her vocalizer and stormed, "Just get any ideas about me out of your CPU _right now_! This kind of thing is _not _helpful for us as a team!"

Bulkhead managed a nod. Riella spun on her heel and stormed out of the room, passing Jazz in the doorway. The Elite Guard ninja greeted her politely, but she ignored him, stomping out of sight.

Jazz's visor flicked for a moment as he glanced after her, then looked at Bulkhead. "What's all that about?"

Bulkhead blinked. "Uh…I didn't think I was talking out loud, but…she didn't like it."

"Lemme guess." Jazz smirked. "Ya noticed she's a _she_. I got the same thing a couple of days ago."


	3. Chapter 3: Star Light, Star Bright

**Telepathy is not a blessing, disguised or not.**

**This is the lighter side of Riella's daily life, inspired by a conversation me and one of my good friends had about what mind-reading would actually mean. It's a collection of one-shots that fit into the Fragile-verse, some humorous, some romantic, and some just plain awkward, but mostly focusing on Riella's telepathy and its effects on herself and those she interacts with. They won't necessarily be in chronological order, so I'll be sure to mention when they take place.**

**Enjoy, and don't forget to let me know what you think! If there's something you'd particularly like to see, feel free to tell me! **

_**Star Light, Star Bright**_

_**Starring:**_

_**Prowl**_

_**Riella**_

_**Old hurts return…but this time there is a shoulder to lean on. Takes place not long before the end of "Fragile". **_

Downtown Detroit was as busy as ever, even in the middle of the night. The figure silhouetted on the roof of the old warehouse glanced briefly toward the lights, the hum of car engines and various automatons easily reaching sensitive audios, before turning back to the darkened back alleys below. Ice-blue optics watched the streets, silent as the cat that stalked her prey in the grass below.

The sharp squawk of a bird broke the silence, catching the attention of the watcher briefly. Flickering with interest, the blue optics studied the animals for a long moment before the sound of an engine below drew attention back to the one the figure was waiting for.

In the shadows of the alley, the color of the sleek motorcycle couldn't be made out, but the watcher on the roof knew perfectly well what it looked like. Stellar cycles and more of working together meant that even the smallest clue would allow one to recognize the other.

Satisfied that the vigil was ended for now, the figure settled into a sitting position, narrow knee joints drawn up to a smooth chestplate, and tilted a slender face back to look up at the stars, thoughts traveling to a planet many light-years away. Thinking back on a time so long ago when no one cared, when everything and everyone was a threat, when everything had been different…and those same stars had still been visible from those other dark streets, unchanging, watching.

The presence of the other was easily detected, but the small figure didn't move or speak, waiting until dark arms wrapped lightly around a slender waist, and a deep voice sounded behind her, quiet so as not to wake those sleeping below.

"Waiting up for me?"

"Mm," Riella hummed softly, leaning back into Prowl's chest and letting him adjust his arms to a more comfortable position. "No…stargazing."

"Really," Prowl murmured against her audio, engine vibrating against her back. "Are you sure? Because I could swear I saw someone watching when I drove in."

Deciding not to keep up the charade any longer, Riella twisted slightly so that she could rest her cheek against his shoulder plating. "Maybe…but stargazing played into it."

"Hmm." Prowl nuzzled gently against the top of her head. "Looking for something in particular, or just looking?"

"Looking and thinking." Riella tipped her head back again, staring up at the sky. "Do you ever think about the fact that we saw these same stars on Cybertron?"

Prowl followed her gaze, studying the tiny points of light. "Not really…but then I never spent much time looking at the stars back then. I suppose you would have seen them most of the time, though…" His voice trailed off as one hand lightly cupped hers. "At least for a while."

"All the time, unless it was raining." Riella could remember so many nights spent curled in a corner of the street, shivering with cold thanks to her damaged thermostat, the stars her only light. "I always liked watching them, even when I was out on the street. In the Warehouse…I never saw anything outside the whole time I was there." She shuddered as the memory of the one place that could completely terrify her rushed back.

_The cell was always pitch-black. Why waste lighting on a flawed creature you would only destroy later? There was never even a hint of light under the door; it sealed tight. The only way out was through the halls…and into the Room. And no one ever came back. _

_The tiny gray youngling shivered, pressing back into the wall of her cell as she tried to disappear. The sense of the Guard walking down the hall always meant that someone would be dead soon. _Not me. I don't want to die._ But he passed her cell, taking someone else today._

_She offlined her optics, whimpering as she tried to block out the terror from the other. They all felt it. Soon, there would be more. Then the pain. No telepath had to see what was happening in the Room to know…_

"Hey…" Prowl's hands brushing her cheekplates and his voice in her audio brought her back to reality. "Don't think like that. You'll never go back there."

Riella arched an optic ridge, eying him curiously. "Are you sure you're not telepathic?"

"I think I'd know," Prowl shrugged, nudging her gently into his lap. She blushed, but settled back against him all the same. "No, I just know what that look means."

"What look?" Riella let the side of her face rest against his chest, feeling his engine vibrate.

"The one where your optics dim, and you start tensing. It was your default expression for the first few weeks I knew you."

Riella shrugged. "Oh, that. Didn't know I was that obvious."

Prowl rubbed one hand from the base of her back up to her neck, easing the tense cables. "Only to someone who knows you well. You're probably tired; you shouldn't have waited up."

"I wanted to." Riella stifled a yawn. "The alarm system's set. We should go to bed."

The black and gold ninja smirked against her shoulder. "That's what I just said."

"No, it's not. You said I was tired."

"Okay, fine." Prowl helped her to her feet, not really wanting to argue at that point. "Are you coming?"

"In a moment." Riella turned to look at the stars, remembering a little rhyme Sari had been telling Bumblebee last week. Maybe it was silly, but for some reason it felt right…

"_Star light, star bright, first star to rise tonight; I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I make tonight."_

_I wish Prowl and I could stay together forever. No dangerous secrets that could get us both killed, no worries that he'll leave me for someone else. Just us. Forever._


End file.
